Out of the Frying Pan
by Katy M VT
Summary: Sam and Dean can't even get carjacked like normal people.  Set during Pilot. AU.


Sam was still having a hard time believing that he had agreed to go with Dean to find Dad. He was always missing…and he was always fine. He couldn't remember the amount of times Dean and Dad had called him selfish. Why? Because he wanted to be normal? Dad was the selfish one.

He was idly flicking through Dean's tape collection. A tape collection? Really? It was 2005 already. But somehow the tape collection seemed to fit in the car. That wasn't going to stop him from giving Dean a hard time about it though.

And that was why he had agreed to go look for their father. He had no doubt the great John Winchester was fine. When they found him, he would just start yelling at Sam. But he hadn't seen his brother in four years. There was one phone call two years ago. It had been filled with awkward silences and much hemming and hawing. He missed his brother. If this was the only way to spend a weekend with him, so be it.

He was pulled from his musing when he felt a shadow over him. He looked up expecting to see Dean. Instead he saw two men standing there.

"Nice car," one of them said.

"Thanks. It's my brother's," Sam responded. That briefly made him ponder when that had happened. John Winchester had never given him anything. But years ago, he had given Dean his leather jacket and at some point in the last few years his beloved car. Sam chided himself for feeling jealous.

"Your brother looking to sell?"

Sam couldn't help but smile at the thought. Dean Winchester sell this car? Only if he was possessed at the time. "No."

"Ready, Sam?" Dean asked, coming out of the store. He hadn't seen Sam in four years, but it was comforting to know some things never changed. If there was anyone willing to start a conversation, Sam was willing to participate in it.

"Your brother?" one of the men asked.

"Yeah," Sam said..

"I want your car," the man said.

"Sorry," Dean said.

"I'll give you $50,000 for it."

Sam jerked his head up. Was the guy nuts? This car was almost 40 years old. And yeah, Dean and his dad took care of it, but considering its occupation, it wasn't in mint condition.

Dean was having pretty much the same thoughts. But, it didn't matter. He wouldn't sell for a million dollars. "Not for sale."

"Then how about a ride?"

"Look, we're in a hurry," Dean said. He was done with these morons. No means no.

He turned away when he heard an unmistakable metallic click. He turned around to find moron number one pointing a gun at Sammy. "Get out of the car," he said.

Sam put down the box of tapes and stood up.

"Take it easy," Dean said. He was nervous. Sam was seriously out of practice. At least he assumed he was. Yeah, he had gotten Dean off of him back at the apartment, but Dean knew that he could have regained the advantage no problem. He had just been done. He held out the keys. "Take it."

Moron number 2 pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. "No, you're going to drive us. Go behind the car to the driver's seat."

Dean backed around the car as the idiot followed him.

"Get in the back seat," Moron number 1 was saying to Sam.

"Leave him out of it," Dean said, as he was sliding behind the wheel. But, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Sam was already getting in. Moron number 1 got in the passenger seat, while moron number 2 got in behind him and pointed his gun at Sam's stomach.

"Drive," he said.

"Where to?" Dean asked.

"Go left. We'll give you instructions as we go."

Dean started the car and only half paid attention to his driving as he tried to figure some way out of this mess.

SSS

"Alex, this is the stupidest thing we've ever done," Mike piped up from the back seat. They had been driving in silence for the past half hour. Dean had made a couple of snarky remarks at the beginning, but had subsided when Sam was threatened.

"It will be fine. That gas station is in the middle of nowhere. We know for a fact there are no security cameras. The only one that saw us was Pete, and he'll swear he didn't see a thing." Pete was his cousin. He ran the gas station.

"What about these two?" Mike asked.

"Turn left," Alex instructed Dean instead of answering Mike.

"Alex?" Mike asked more insistently. This wasn't the first car he had stolen with Alex, but it was the first time they had taken hostages.

"Turn into that driveway," Alex told Dean. He knew Mike wasn't going to like it, but they were going to have to kill the two witnesses. "Get the garage door," he told Mike.

Mike got out to do so. With him gone, Dean knew this might be their only opportunity of escape. He could tell from the way the conversation was going that this Alex guy intended on killing them. Mike didn't seem to keen on that. If he could overpower Alex while Mike didn't actively have a gun on Sam, he could probably turn the situation to their advantage.

He turned to the side quick as a snake and grabbed the gun pointing it towards the floor of the car. Sam quickly grabbed his head and shoved it into the car window.

Mike was opening the garage door when he heard the commotion from within the car. He ran back to it and opened the back passenger door. He grabbed Sam and pulled him out of the car and knocked him down on the ground. "Let him go or your brother's brains will be all over the driveway."

Dean let go of Alex's gun hand. Sam hadn't hit his head hard enough to knock him out and Dean was far from in control of that situation. Not anywhere near close enough to make a counterdemand of the same nature. Alex pointed his gun at him. "You'll pay for that."

Mike yanked Sam up from the ground and directed him to open the garage door. Dean drove into the garage and Mike motioned Sam inside and instructed him to close it. "What are we going to do with them?" he asked Alex, once he and Dean had joined them outside of the car and in the confines of the small garage.

"You know what we have to do," Alex said.

"No. I didn't sign on to kill anyone," Mike protested.

"Then what?" Alex asked.

"I know. I have an uncle that brokers slaves. He ships people to Asia and South America mostly."

"How does he get away with that?" Alex asked. He couldn't see customs just letting human cargo out of somewhere. Especially on the volume it would take to be profitable.

"No idea, but he does."

"Fine. Let's secure these two and you can call your uncle."

Alex stuck his gun in Sam's back and motioned to Dean to precede them into the house. During that last exchange he had figured out the weak link of the pair.

They were brought down to the basement and Alex held his gun on Sam while Mike tied the two brothers up. He then tied Sam to the hot water heater and tied Dean up to the furnace. They were on opposite ends of the room.

"Gag them while you're at it," Alex decided.

Mike did so and the two of them went upstairs and Sam and Dean heard the door locking. They had turned out the lights and plunged them into blackness. Sam was actually grateful for that. He didn't want to see Dean's eyes. They were sure to be filled with disappointment. They were in this predicament in the first place because he had allowed Alex to pull a gun on him because he had barely been paying attention to him. And then he had thwarted their escape attempt by being taken hostage by Mike in the middle of a fight. It was a good thing he had gotten out of hunting.

Dean wished the lights were on so he could see Sam. They couldn't talk so it would have been nice to have some way to communicate. Through eyes or nods or something. He couldn't believe that he had ended up endangering Sam by bringing him on this trip in the first place. He should have left him at school. With those thoughts he soon fell asleep.

SSS

Sam and Dean were awakened to a bright light turning on. Alex and Mike came down the stairs with another man.

"Well, how about it Uncle Ed? Do you want them?" Mike asked.

Ed stooped down in front of Sam. He put his hands on his chest and biceps measuring muscles. Dean grunted from across the room. It was supposed to be a death threat, but didn't come out very menacing. Ed just chuckled and grabbed Sam's chin and turned his head one way and then the other. "This one will do nicely," he said and then crossed the room to Dean. He repeated his earlier procedure. "I don't want this one."

"Why not?" Mike asked.

"It's his eyes. Nobody will ever break this one."

"They will if you sell them as a package," Alex said.

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

"He's very protective of the other one. You threaten that one and this one does whatever you want."

"Really?" Ed asked, intrigued. He knew a couple of guys who would get off on the power of something like that. "What the hell? I'll give it a try."

Sam closed his eyes in disgust. They were going to try to use him to control Dean. He couldn't let that happen. No matter what his dad thought he wasn't selfish.

Mike cut Dean free from the furnace and untied his feet. He then passed him over to Alex to hold while he cut Sam free in the same manner. Sam waited until his feet were untied and then he kicked him in the groin. Dean bashed his head back into Alex's head. Meanwhile Sam was ramming into Ed, knocking him over. He quickly stood up and with a nod to Dean they started up the stairs. They both wished their hands weren't tied, but figured once they were outside they could get help from one of the neighbors.

Sam felt himself being dragged back down the stairs. "Hold it," Ed said, testing out Alex's hypothesis. Dean turned around to find Ed holding a gun to Sam's temple. "Come back down here."

Dean sighed through his gag and started to come back down. Sam was shaking his head violently. He wanted Dean to get away.

"This is great," Ed declared.

Mike was finally getting totally straightened up. He grabbed Dean's arm and propelled him up the stairs, with Ed following with Sam. Alex was down for the count.

There was a big 18-wheeler parked by the side of the road. Ed opened up the back and shoved Sam and Dean inside. There were already 20 other people inside. All of them bound and gagged. Sam and Dean exchanged a look.

A few moments later, they heard the truck start and they were off. There was a lot of slipping and sliding into each other as nobody was able to hold themselves still with their hands behind their backs.

SSS

A couple of hours later, they felt the truck come to a stop. The back door was opened once again. Ed came back and pulled Sam and Dean out. "The rest of you are off to exotic locations, but I have a special buyer in mind for these two."

Ed handed the truck keys to another man and gestured for Sam and Dean to go into his office. When they hesitated he grabbed Sam and pushed him ahead of him with the gun placed firmly in his back. He trusted Dean would follow. When he entered the office and turned around, he found he was right. His buyer was going to love these two. "Sit down," he said as he closed the door.

Sam and Dean sat in the two chairs across from his desk. Ed grabbed a couple of lengths of rope and tied it around their chests, securing them to the chairs. He then sat down behind his desk and placed a call. "Got something I think you'll be interested in," he said.

The potential buyer agreed to be there within the hour to check out the merchandise.

Ed went ahead and placed a few other calls, ignoring the brothers.

When the buyer arrived, Ed stood up to greet him.

"What's so special about these two?" he asked.

"Watch this," Ed said. He went over and untied Dean. "Stand up."

Dean stood up. He kind of wanted to anyway. He'd been sitting for the better part of 24 hours. He took the gag out of his mouth while he was at it.

"Take your shirt off," Ed said.

"No way," Dean replied.

Ed knelt down behind Sam's chair and put a knife to his throat.

"Not doing it," Dean said. He had heard the conversation earlier in the basement. He knew that this sicko was into this. He wasn't going to play along.

Ed pressed the knife into Sam's throat drawing blood. Sam was trying hard not to make a sound. He didn't want this any more than Dean did. But he couldn't help keeping his breathing from speeding up.

Dean noticed. That was a sign of fear. He said, "OK," and took his shirt off.

"Leave me alone with them for a while," the buyer said.

"You break it you bought it," Ed warned and left the office.

"I can't tell you how excited I am by this. I've been looking for you for the last couple of days."

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked. He stepped back as the man's eyes glowed yellow. "What are you?"

"A demon."

"Demons have black eyes," Dean said.

"Your garden variety demons have black eyes, but there's more than one type of demon, Dean-o."

"Why would a demon need to buy people?" Dean asked.

"I'm just possessing this guy because I got wind that he was going to get the opportunity to buy the Winchester boys. Before your daddy disappeared, he paid each of you a late night visit and put a spell on you to hide demons. Had you not gone to pick up Sammy I could have easily found him. But you, Dean, you would have been a challenge. Always moving around."

"What do you want with us?" Dean asked.

"I'm the demon that killed your mommy. Now I want to kill your daddy."

"Why now?"

"He found something out he shouldn't know. Call him," the demon said, handing Dean a phone.

"He hasn't been answering," Dean said.

"He hasn't been answering you," the demon corrected. "I've spoken with him a few times. We've been trying to reach an understanding. He's not far away. Tell him to be here within the hour."

"I'm not going to lead my dad into a trap," Dean protested.

"You know, it's just really too bad you have one weakness that everybody knows about," the demon said and looked pointedly at Sam, who was still tied to the chair. He hit his head on the back of it lightly. Now not only was he going to get his brother killed, but maybe his father as well.

"If you even think about hurting him," Dean began.

The demon held out his fist and tightened it. Sam started gasping for breath. He wanted to put his hands up to his throat to somehow help himself breathe, but of course he couldn't. The gag wasn't making things any easier either.

"OK," Dean yelled and started dialing.

The demon allowed Sam to breathe normally. "I'm feeling generous. You can remove his gag."

Dean stepped over and did so. Then his father answered the phone. "Do we have a deal?"

"Dad, it's Dean."

"Dean? What's going on?"

"The demon has me and Sam. He wants you to meet him here in an hour."

"Where's here?"

"No idea," Dean realized.

The demon took the phone from him and gave John the address and hung up.

"What deal was he talking about?" Dean asked.

"What?" Sam asked.

"He answered the phone by asking if they had a deal," Dean explained to Sam, then looked back to the demon.

"He has something I want. He was trying to get something in return for it. Now I'm sure he'll be more than happy to turn it over for the return of his sons."

"What does he have?" Sam asked. He couldn't imagine what any person could have that a demon could want. Except for their soul.

"Well, you'll find out during the exchange. It's a gun."

"So go to a gun store," Dean said.

"It's a one of a kind gun. It kills demons along with other supernatural creatures."

"How did he get his hands on that?" Sam asked.

"A friend of his had it."

"What did he want from you?" Sam asked.

"You're full of curiosity aren't you? You know what they say about that right?"

"Yeah, but he's not a cat," John said as he entered the office with the Colt aimed at the demon. All he had to do was pull the trigger and this would all be over. He cocked the gun. But of course the demon was faster. He pulled Dean in front of him and was using him as a shield.

"Now, that wasn't very nice, John. Give me the gun and I'll give you Dean."

"What about Sam?" John and Dean asked at the same time.

"Not on the table. He needs to start training."

"What?" Sam and Dean asked. Unfortunately John knew exactly what the demon meant. He gave Dean a signal that they'd rehearsed for years. Dean hit the demon and ducked out of the way. John fired the gun and sent the demon into oblivion.

They watched as the demon sparked red for several seconds and tumbled down dead. "That was pretty cool," Dean said.

The joy was shortlived as Sam began to cough up blood. Dean quickly untied him as John dropped to his knees next to him. "Are you OK?" he asked. He knew the demon had dripped blood into Sam's mouth on his six month birthday. Now, apparently with his death, that blood was coming out. It must have multiplied over the years, but surely there wouldn't be too much.

Sam finally stopped coughing up blood, but he felt very weak. He hadn't eaten in over a day and hadn't had any water in almost that length of time. Dean and John helped him up and Sam leant on Dean as they made their way out of the warehouse. As they were stepping foot outside, Sam felt himself being hauled back in.

Dean felt the weight of Sam leaving him and spun around to find Ed holding Sam in front of him, his arm locked around Sam's neck and his hand holding a gun to Sam's temple. What was with all these people using Sam against him? He had never realized how much he endangered Sam just by caring about him before.

Sam was trying to tug Ed's arm from his neck, but in his weakened condition he was no match for the veteran slave trader.

"Well, since you killed the buyer I had in mind for you, I only need this one. He can go overseas with the rest of them," Ed said and pulled the gun away from Sam's head and aimed it at Dean.

"NO!" Sam yelled and lurched himself to one side, throwing off Ed's aim. Ed maintained hold of him however, negating any chance John had of getting a shot. He pushed Dean behind some crates.

"Dad, we have to get Sam back," Dean protested as they watched Ed drag Sam towards a truck that was just pulling into the warehouse yard. He knew that meant a shipment of people was going out.

"They ran towards the truck using crates for cover as they went. Ed and Sam beat them to it, though and Ed was opening the back. When he got the door opened, though, he was confronted by several uniformed officers jumping out at him.

They had been watching him for a while and finally had enough evidence for an arrest. Ed still had his hostage, though. "Let me go, or I'll kill him," he yelled.

"Let the hostage go," one of the officers said. This wasn't how it was supposed to be going down.

Sam wanted to try the lurching thing again to see if he could get free, but Ed had tightened his hold to the point where he could barely breathe. He knew he had only seconds left of consciousness. And as if to prove himself right, he quickly lost it.

SSS

He woke up in a hospital room. "Are you OK, Sammy?" Dean asked.

"What happened?" Sam asked. The last thing he remembered, he was a human shield against several officers. That usually never went well for the hostage taker or the hostage.

"When we saw that you had passed out, Dad jumped that Ed guy and tore him off you. Cops did the rest. The first time I was ever glad of their presence," Dean admitted.

"Where is Dad?" Sam asked.

"Right here," John said, walking in the room with two cups of coffee.

"What did you want from the demon?" Sam asked. He hadn't been able to get that out of his mind.

"He had plans for you, Sammy. He's gone now. You don't need to worry about them. That blood you coughed out ended everything."

"I don't understand."

"I'm not going to explain," John decided. His son didn't need to know how close he came to becoming evil. It wasn't going to happen now and that was all that mattered.

"Did anyone call Jessica?" Sam asked, suddenly remembering the love of his life.

"Yeah. She's coming to pick you up," Dean said in a sad tone. Apparently they had saved Sam from something big, but they were still going to lose him.

"We have things to do and lives to save, son," John said, clapping Dean on the shoulder. He had saved Sam and now he could let him go. "Keep in touch, Sam."

"Really?" Sam asked.

"That's an order," John smiled.

The End


End file.
